Urban Growth

STOCKTON - Nineteen years and 101 lost trees later, a one-mile stretch of El Dorado Street is being modestly transformed.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Nineteen years and 101 lost trees later, a one-mile stretch of El Dorado Street is being modestly transformed.

Between the Calaveras River and Alpine Avenue, the busy north-south artery has been the source of over ambition, precipitous tree cutting, riled-up residents and carefully revised urban landscaping.

By summer's midpoint, $2.1 million in new trees, sidewalk improvements and intersection modifications will be complete.

In the meantime, traffic lanes have been narrowed and motorists have been diverted.

El Dorado Street, littered with ugly stumps in recent years, will look better. But not as it appeared six years ago, a shaded thoroughfare of mature hackberries and Modesto Ash.

"Miss Betty" has seen it all.

She lives at the corner of Barrymore Street. Her detached garage backs on to El Dorado. She and her first husband, Albert Buthenuth, bought the peach-hued house, with rich brown trim, in 1948.

"The work has been a mess," 88-year-old Betty Previtali said. "I'll be so glad when it's done."

She wasn't surprised in 2008 when the city chopped down a canopy of trees on both sides of El Dorado stretching from Alpine to the river. Her disappointment comes from the failure to complete the original vision of an extra traffic lane and a more extensive makeover.

That original vision was born in 1994 when then-Mayor Joan Darrah and the City Council unanimously voted on the changes as part of a $50 million citywide Stockton Streets Improvement Project.

Budget cuts, and a neighborhood uprising, prompted city leaders to revise their thinking. Following a series of community meetings, the city's Department of Public Works altered plans downward and in a more pedestrian-friendly direction.

"When the economy tanked, everybody was experiencing problems on their projects," said Eric Alvarez, a Public Works spokesman. "It made things more challenging but a good thing in the end. It is a nice project, and we're looking forward to completing this one."

The improvements, Alvarez points out, include slightly wider sidewalks - a goal of the local citizens group. "They wanted the street to be more pedestrian friendly," he said, "preserving the community and embellishing it."

The city awarded the El Dorado Street project to North Dakota-based Knife River Corp., a construction company operating in 11 states with offices in Stockton. Lodi-based Odyssey Landscaping is a subcontractor.

One-hundred forty-two trees have been planted: 81 London plane, 53 ginkgo biloba (also known as maidenhair) and eight flowering crape myrtle. They range in height from 5 to 10 feet. Each was selected for its drought-resistant, fast-growing and urban-tolerant qualities.

Jose Aguirre, 32, a speech therapist at a charter school in San Jose, lives across the street from Previtali. He was born in French Camp and raised in nearby migrant camps. The Barrymore-El Dorado home is his first.

"I like it," said Aguirre, a University of the Pacific graduate. "When I bought three years ago, there were no trees, just holes where the trees used to be. I'm glad for what they've done. A street looks bare without trees."

At a small shopping center nearby, 28-year-old Olivia Lara set up her Farmers Insurance office in November.

Happy to be on her own for the first time, she sees a silver lining in the ongoing construction zone. "Traffic has to slow down," Lara said. "I think people actually look around a little more."

She has benefited with some walk-in customers.

Congestion won't end for another three months. The project's final phase will force traffic closer to the curb between Fulton Street and Alpine Avenue. At both intersections, one-foot medians with bulb outs for trees will be built.

At Fulton, the median will direct traffic around the street which dog legs from one side of El Dorado to the other. At Alpine, small medians south and north of the intersection will be installed.

City Hall, in the throes of bankruptcy and the larger issue of crime, has come to the doorstep of one of Stockton's older neighborhoods with its work on El Dorado.

"We focused on what was important to concerned citizens in the area," Alvarez said. "And we prioritized. Trees were No. 1."

Aguirre, the newcomer, and Previtali, the old timer, agree.

Their corner remains one of the few havens of deep shade with towering hackberry trees gracing their respective front yards - 60 feet off El Dorado.

Home from his two-hour commute, Aguirre stood late one recent afternoon and said, "This is a major artery and everybody used to like it, then the city took out the trees and set people off."

Previtali, whose home has accent shutters, neatly cropped grass and signs of obvious care, was living on Barrymore when it was at the edge of Stockton. She remembers when the Calaveras River bridge was built more than 60 years ago and El Dorado continued north.

"I'm gonna stay right here," said Previtali. "I've really seen changes over the years. I remember when we didn't lock our doors and knew every neighbor.

"It upset me when they cut down the trees. Now these have got to grow up."